HC coach”Spartacus » Alexei Kovalev in a conversation with , he commented on the goal error of striker Ilya Kovalchuk, after which Kunlun scored a minority goal in the Fonbet KHL championship match.
On Sunday, 40-year-old Kovalchuk played his first match for Spartak. His team beat Kunlun (5:2) in Luzhniki. Kovalchuk, in addition to the goal error, scored an empty-net goal and spent 14.33 minutes on the ice, playing in a trio with Andrei Loktionov and Maxim Tsyplakov.
— Spartak has already conceded 10 power play goals. In the match with Kunlun, Ilya Kovalchuk “stood out”, from whom the puck was taken away. What’s wrong with your team?
— In the correct game, with equal and majority compositions, there is always risk. There are moments that we miss. But we’re not trying to force guys into a certain framework to play and be afraid to do certain things. Sometimes these things disappear, sometimes they don’t. And all we ask is that when there are more serious matches, the guys understand when and what passes to make, when to shoot. So that such moments do not arise. But that’s the only way to develop the power play – by taking risks. The fact that the puck was taken away from Ilya is nothing like that. He tried to play a certain way. Did not work. What can we do? Spartak scored one goal in the majority. And the score was loose enough that we could experiment at certain points and play something.
— What must Spartak change to really qualify for the Gagarin Cup?
“Everything is going well for us, except we have to play until the end every time.” Just like in the third period against Kunlun, there are times when we lose the match. We start making mistakes, and that leads to goals. We must avoid these mistakes, draw the right conclusions, make the right decisions on the ice. And then any club will qualify for the Gagarin Cup. We don’t miss this moment, knowing that we are having a good season. Yes, other games will go to the playoffs. But for this we prepared all season, drawing certain conclusions so as not to repeat the mistakes in the playoffs.
—How important was it for Kovalchuk to score into an empty net?
– We are happy for Ilya. It’s not so easy to come back after missing two seasons and score even against an empty net. Kovalchuk is a great guy, and the score allowed him to break free in the end. It’s clear he’s a little tired. It was clear that he was a little lost as many changes and directions were happening at short notice. But all the guys were worried and wanted him to score. And that’s what happened,” Kovalev told .
Spartak occupies first place in the Western Conference with 62 points in 44 matches.
Watch live broadcasts of the Fonbet KHL championship matches on the channel, as well as on the matchtv.ru and sportbox.ru sites.
Source : MatchTV
I’m Emma Smith, a dedicated journalist and avid storyteller. I have been writing for news websites for the past 5 years, reporting on hockey news and delivering in-depth analysis of the sport. In my current role as Author at Athletistic, I write about hockey events from around the world to keep followers up-to-date with what’s happening in the sport.
